Vietnam feasibility study - EITI

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Smith (2004) claims that transparency is a quality of expression based on clarity and publicity. It
allows interested people to have a clear look and be able to monitor and evaluate easily.
According to the UNPAN (1999), Campo & Sundaram (2000), in term of government’s management,
transparency is understood as the ability to access information and the favorable conditions for
people to understand the process of decision – making. For example, people are able to freely access
information and monitor government debates on television, audit reports of the government, and
public recruitment for public officials.
In the financial sector, transparency in monetary policy according to IMF refers to an environment in
which the objectives of policy; its legal institutional system and economic framework; policy decisions
and their rationale; data and information related to monetary and financial policies; and the terms of
agencies’ accountability are publicized on an understandable, accessible, and timely basis. Geraats
(2001) claims that transparency is a general definition related to policy, economic, culture, process
or procedure, policy-making and policy implementation. According to VCCI (2009), transparency in
Vietnam’s Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) is understood as: “the enterprise’s capacity to access
provincial plans and necessary legal documents for business; the availability of these documents; whether
or not they are consulted by enterprises before enforcing them; the predictability in the implementation
process of those documents and the convenience of a province’s website for business”.
Transparency associates closely with the concept of accountability. The purpose of transparency is
to allow the economy’s subjects (people, business, and government) easily to explain their policies
and activities. Transparency is also considered as evaluation tool for public agencies which provide
necessary information for agents’ activities of the economy. Also, based on that, the public can easily
inspect the information provided and use it to maintain the accountability of organizations. In this
sense, transparency could be an interaction between people inside and outside an organization,
which people outside an organization (such as people or shareholders) can monitor, supervise
and evaluate activities of people inside an organization (such as government officials or company
managers).
Iv.2 - TransParencY reGulaTIOns In vIeTnam
Iv.2.1 Transparency in current legal regulations
Right to be informed is one of the fundamental rights of Vietnamese citizens by the national
Constitution. The 1992 Constitution, article 69 affirms that “Citizens are entitled to freedom of speech
and freedom of the press; they have the right to receive information and the right of assembly, association
and demonstration in accordance with the law”.
In Vietnam’s legal system, the Law on Anticorruption No 55/2005/QH11 of 2005 also provides many
rules and regulations relating to public liability and transparency. Article 11 regulates principles
on and content of publicity and transparency in the activities of agencies, organizations and units.
Paragraph 2 reads “Agencies, organizations and units must publicize their activities, except for contents
classified as state secrets and other contents prescribed by the Government.” Article 15 says about
financial and state publicity and transparency that:
“1. Budgets of all levels and budget-estimating units must publicize in detail the estimate and settlement
figures, which have been decided and ratified by competent state bodies, including supplemented budget
amounts.
2. Budget-estimating units with revenue sources from and expenditures covered by constructions of
organizations and/or individuals according to the provisions of law must publicize the mobilization
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the Implementation Perspective of Vietnam